The Biggest Foot-in-Mouth Moments from Boxers in the Last Decade

Selling a boxing match normally includes a lot of trash talk. With the promotional tours, shows like 24/7 and All Access, and interviews before and after the match, boxers have many opportunities to say something they shouldn't.

They're asked to be over the top and boisterous to help sell the fight and get fans to buy tickets and pay-per-views, but the fine line between being boisterous and being offensive is often crossed.

What may offend some may not offend others, but with as often as boxers have cameras or mics in front of them, there have been and will continue to be times when they say something they wish they could take back.

His comments didn't offend me—most things don't—but they certainly didn't help the perception of him. He was trying to be funny and edgy, but the comments came off as racist and over the line to some. I'm not one of those people, but Broner still should have known better than to say what he said.

Most fans wouldn't have blinked an eye if he had just stuck to bragging about how great he is, had his dad brush his hair and talked about how easy he beat his last opponent. When he decided to drop an "F" bomb and mention race, he went from being funny to offensive to many fans.

Floyd Mayweather Going After Larry Merchant

Everyone will remember this one. Floyd Mayweather Jr., after his controversial knockout of Victor Ortiz, decided to keep the fight going by cussing out ringside commentator Larry Merchant.

Classic foot in mouth. Mayweather is loud and boisterous about his accomplishments, but his skin was pretty thin on that night. The pound-for-pound king didn't appreciate being questioned about taking what was perceived by some as a cheap shot.

I thought the punches were clean—protect yourself at all times—but I can see why some were unhappy about his actions in the ring.

The two had issues before this incident. After a different fight on HBO, Merchant had asked about the fans booing and if Mayweather's style was boring. Many agreed with what Merchant said about his style, but it's easy to figure out why Mayweather didn't like him very much.

To be fair to Merchant, the question about his knockout of Ortiz needed to be asked. Like he does in the ring, Mayweather attempted to duck and dodge the question, but Merchant wouldn't let up. Mayweather should have answered the question more directly and moved on, but instead he became irritated.

That incident after the fight was truthfully more entertaining than the fight with Ortiz in the ring.

Adrien Broner: "I Left with His Belt and His Girl"

What do you know; Adrien Broner is on this list again! He has a habit of putting himself in these situations.

If Broner was a football player, he definitely wouldn't hand the ball back to the referee after a touchdown like Barry Sanders. He probably thought Joe Horn putting the cellphone under the padding of the goal post was a cool and funny idea.

Talk about the fight; leave the personal stuff out of the conversation. I mean, what's next—"your momma" jokes after the fight? It was bad enough that he brought the girl to a stop on the press conference tour before the fight, but to bring it up again after a tough split decision?

David Haye Blames Loss to Wladimir Klitschko on Broken Toe

I love how David Haye started off his comments with "I hate how boxers make excuses" and then continued to make one of the worst excuses I ever heard.

Is a broken toe painful, and does it hurt your mobility? Of course, but the reason Klitschko dominated him had nothing to do with his poor little toe.

Haye talked more trash before that fight than almost any boxer I can remember. He paraded around wearing a T-shirt at a press conference that featured the decapitated heads of the Klitschko brothers, and he wants to blame his loss on his toe?

Give me a break.

The judges gave Klitschko 10, nine and eight rounds, respectively. Klitschko won because he was taller, bigger, threw harder punches and was the more skilled boxer. Haye's loss had nothing to do with his toe.

There's no shame in losing to Klitschko, so just admit defeat and move on. Making an excuse as weak as Haye did only makes the situation 10 times worse.

I know that this one didn't come from a boxer, but it is without a doubt one of the dumbest things said by someone involved in the sport in recent years, so I had to include this gem.

After he scored the first Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley match in favor of Bradley—as did equally incompetent judge C.J. Ross in the worst decision I've seen in the last decade or more—judge Duane Ford followed up his poor decision with comments that somehow made the situation worse.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal via ESPN, Ford said "I thought Bradley gave Pacquiao a boxing lesson. I thought a lot of the rounds were close. Pacquiao missed a lot of punches, and I thought he was throwing wildly."

I still can't figure out what fight he was watching. Pacquiao landed the cleaner and harder shots all fight long. His hand and foot speed overwhelmed Bradley, who never sustained a long period of solid offense. To call Bradley's performance a "boxing lesson" would be like someone arguing that the sky is green.

I had the fight 118-110. Dan Rafael of ESPN had it 119-109. The Associated Press had it 117-111. Just read the quotes compiled on the BoxRec.com page for the fight, and you'll know what you need to know about the "boxing lesson."